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BUSINESS NEWS STUDIO FOUR DESIGN TEAM WINS SOLOMON AWARD FOR CHURCH DESIGN Studio Four Design , a top architecture and design firm based in Knoxville, Tennessee, that specializes in worship facilities, was awarded a 2017 Solomon Award for design by the Worship Facilities Network for their work on the Grace Baptist Church student ministry building in Knoxville. The award was presented in the category of Church Design – Youth and Children’s Spaces for facilities with 301 to 800 seats. The Grace Baptist Church project began in 2016 and was completed earlier this year. Grace Baptist leaders wanted the new environment to be relational and fun for the youth of their church. These ideas became key concepts for the design and construction team of Studio Four Design. They needed the new building to complement the transitional style and materials of the existing church campus buildings, but also to be uniquely its own to reflect the brand and identity of Grace Student Ministries. “Expansion is a challenge for any church,” said Stacy Cox, president of Studio Four Design. “The leadership of Grace and their student ministry team had a strong vision, and it was our privilege to bring that vision to life. Our team did a great job of giving the new facility a look and feel that complimented the existing church, but at the same time, we were able to give it a generational vibe to resonate with the students who would enjoy spending time in the new space.” The centerpiece of this facility is a new student

auditorium. It provides room for more than 700 students in their mid-week service and is designed for a flexible arrangement of seating. Built at a cost of $3.5 million, Merit Construction was able to deliver this project on time and within the budget constraints of the church while working within a site in the center of an active church and Grace Christian Academy K-12 school, which is also located on the campus. Studio Four Design previously won a Solomon Award in 2016 for their work on the Northstar Church South Knoxville campus expansion. “The team at Studio Four Design is honored and humbled by winning another Solomon Award,” said Cox. “We cherish our relationships with churches like Grace Baptist and Northstar. It’s our passion to provide the very best environments for them through good architectural design which allows their facilities to be more effective tools for ministry.” LA ARCHITECTS DESIGN INNOVATIVE OUTDOOR SHELTERS FOR HOMELESS CATS One of this year’s most innovative design events, Architects for Animals “Giving Shelter” exhibit, returned to the HermanMiller Showroom in Culver City in October. The sold-out event benefits the Los Angeles-based non-profit FixNation, which provides free spay/neuter services for homeless cats (stray, abandoned, and feral felines). LA’s top architects and designers were invited to design, build and donate functional and one-of-a-kind outdoor dwellings for cats. The shelters were displayed at a cocktail

reception attended by the public, VIPs, and media representatives. Also on display were 28 cat food bowls decorated by feline-loving celebrities – including Jay Leno, Charlize Theron, Beau Bridges, Elvira, William Shatner, Clint Eastwood, Tricia Helfer, and Morgan Fairchild. “This year’s cat shelters were extraordinarily creative, and the designers put a great deal of time and thought into how cats would actually interact with the shelters,” says FixNation’s Co-Founder and Executive Director Karn Myers. “They are truly works of art with a practical application, and all the shelters are showcased in our online auction as well.” Los Angeles is home to one of the nation’s largest populations of homeless felines, an estimated 1 million to 3 million cats. FixNation is a model for successful Trap-Neuter- Return and humane colony management programs across the country and around the world. Myers and her late husband, Mark Dodge, founded the organization 10 years ago to provide a more effective and compassionate alternative to mass euthanasia. Participating design firms this year included Abramson Teiger Architects ; d3architecture ; ES-EN-EM ; CallisonRTKL ; HKS ; HOK ; Perkins + Will ; Knowhow Shop; Kollin Altomare Architects ; RNL now Stantec; Standard Architecture | Design ; and a collaborative project from Formation Association, Terremoto Landscape, and Arktura.

PHIL KEIL, from page 11

ensure that discipline does not impose artificial constraints or restrict thought, but contrary to what you might be thinking, this approach will allow you to be more flexible, adaptive, effi- cient, and creative. Operating within a set boundary, you can change people, plans, or leadership on a project because each person understands the expectations. “A careful balance must be maintained to ensure that discipline does not impose artificial constraints or restrict thought, but contrary to what you might be thinking, this approach will allow you to be more flexible, adaptive, efficient, and creative.” Implementing these ideas will position your firm as a recognized leader and will differentiate you from your competition. They will also help you survive troubled times and build a scalable organization. PHIL KEIL is a consultant with Zweig Group’s M&A services. Contact him at pkeil@zweiggroup.com.

your clients’ lives more difficult or time consuming leads to decreased motivation to do business with you. ❚ ❚ Organize your firm to align by market sector rather than geography or service discipline. The first step in the process is to identify the specific market sectors that make sense to establish as areas of differentiation. Once determined, the next step is to identify market sector leaders within your or- ganization who will function as the “CEO” of the market they lead. They should be visible on panels, in white papers, and on the firm’s website or blog. They will be charged with creating business plans that will be presented to the firm. These annu- al business plans should include financial projections, staffing needs, marketing opportunities, expansion initiatives, and research into their market sector’s evolving challenges for the clients served. It will become a retention, recruiting, and staff development tool as well as an accountability tool. ❚ ❚ Cultivating discipline to achieve greater freedom and flexibility. A firm that has disciplined standards and pro- cedures allows a firm to operate as a flatter organization and requires less centralized decision making. This frees up leaders to think more strategically and employees do not feel micromanaged. A careful balance must be maintained to

THE ZWEIG LETTER January 1, 2018, ISSUE 1229

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